Turns out, it’s a dicey proposition to build an NBA team around a group of players in their mid-30s, no matter how much talent those elderly gents may have. The current state of the Lakers bears that out.

Before the season, there were two potential impediments between the Lakers and the predicted dominance that followed their acquisitions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.

The first was chemistry, and that turned out to be an unsolvable problem. These Lakers could not get themselves organized into a workable system in the early part of the season and, just as bad, they didn’t seem to like each other much. Thus the 9-14 start.

But the other potential problem — their age and susceptibility to injury — has cropped up throughout the year, and it is making its biggest impact now, at the worst possible time. The Lakers are trying to salvage some semblance of success this year by at least earning a playoff spot, but the effects of wear-and-tear have finally worn this team out.

It all came crashing down on Thursday in Milwaukee, the day that small forward (age 33) Metta World Peace underwent season-ending surgery on his left knee. Pile onto that pain in the back and hamstring for 39-year-old Steve Nash, the pain being attributed to a hip spasm and that forced him out of the loss to the Bucks in the third quarter.

After the game, coach Mike D’Antoni put it simply: “We’re looking our age a little bit.”

The timing could not be worse, of course.

The Lakers have just nine games left to play, and though seven of them are at the Staples Center, their opponents include the Grizzlies, Clippers, Warriors and Spurs. They play a pivotal game against the Mavericks on Tuesday — with Dallas making a charge and now just 1.5 games behind the Lakers for the No. 8 seed — and they close the year against Houston, which is currently holding the No. 7 seed.

It doesn’t help, either, that the ninth-place team, the Jazz, is back to .500 after winning back-to-back games. The Jazz have 10 left to play, and six of those are at home where they’ve gone 26-9 this year.

The Lakers still have the inside track on the final spot in the playoffs, but the grip has become tenuous. Maybe this should have been predictable back in October, when the team came out with a starting five whose average age was slated to be 33.4 years by season’s end.

Maybe it should have been even more predictable as D’Antoni essentially handed the team to Bryant, who has played 37.9 minutes per game and has played 40-plus minutes 22 times this year. Not only are the Lakers old, but their bench is thin, and hasn’t offered much support for the starting geezers. The Lakers’ bench ranks dead last in the league at 20.5 points per game, shooting 41.6 percent from the field and 33.9 percent from the three-point line.

The bad chemistry among the Lakers was on display early in the year.

Now, late in the year, the effects of age and a lack of depth are taking over.

The combination of the two not only kept the Lakers from being contenders, but it could keep them out of the postseason altogether.